Solicitor struck off after stealing £10m sent to him to buy castle

2023-01-04

Corrupt solicitor, 63, is struck off after stealing £10million entrusted to him by US investors to buy neo-Gothic Scottish castle visited by Queen Victoria on her honeymoon

Solicitor who stole £10m entrusted to him to buy Scottish Castle struck off
Stephen Jones was instructed by US company to buy the lavish Taymouth Castle
Mr Jones was jailed having pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud
A tribunal concluded that Mr Jones should be struck from the roll of solicitors

Stephen Jones had been hired to oversee the purchase of the neo-Gothic Taymouth Castle in the Scottish Highlands by US investors

A corrupt solicitor who stole £10million entrusted to him to buy a Scottish Castle visited by Queen Victoria has been struck off.

Stephen Jones had been hired to oversee the purchase of the neo-Gothic Taymouth Castle in the Scottish Highlands by US investors.

But he asked his clients to send him the purchase fee twice before giving the extra money to an unidentified party, a panel heard.

The 63-year-old was jailed last year for a total of 12 years, believed to have been the longest sentence ever handed down to a lawyer, and has now been thrown out of the profession.

A solicitor’s disciplinary tribunal heard Mr Jones was an experienced solicitor who had qualified in 1986 and worked for a number of top firms during his career.

In April 2018, he was instructed by a US property development company – specialising in building hotels and clubs – to buy the lavish castle, the committee was told.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had spent time at Taymouth Castle during their honeymoon in 1840.

Mr Jones’ London based specialist tax firm Jirehouse Partners was hired to complete the work, the panel heard.

Having been handed the funds to buy the castle, Mr Jones told the US investors the money had been held up and asked for a further payment to ensure the deal went through, effectively charging them twice.

The unused funds were never returned to the investors – Discovery Land Company LLC – and he gave a ‘series of explanations and excuses’ as to why it could not be returned, the tribunal heard.

Mr Jones was instructed by a US property development company – specialising in building hotels and clubs – to buy the lavish castle, the committee was told

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had spent time at Taymouth Castle during their honeymoon in 1840

He was jailed for 14 months for contempt of court in 2019 having failed to disclose where the money had gone.

The solicitor was told to pay the missing money to court but ‘persistently and repeatedly’ breached orders to do so, the panel heard.

In 2019, the Solicitors Regulation Authority closed down Jirehouse Partners and in December 2020 referred Mr Jones to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Inside the lavish Taymouth Castle in Kenmore, Scotland, at the centre of this tribunal

In November 2022, after a private prosecution was brought by Discovery Land, Mr Jones was jailed for 12 years at Southwark Crown Court having pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud.

The tribunal concluded that Mr Jones should be struck from the roll of solicitors, having been found in contempt of court and to have acted dishonestly.

The tribunal concluded: ‘It is clear that [Mr Jones] had deliberately and repeatedly given false and misleading information (or deliberately failed to provide information that he knew he was obliged to provide), both to those acting for Discovery Land and to the Court.

‘These are quite exceptionally serious findings against a solicitor.

‘He also undermined public trust in himself and the provision of legal services.’

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